Contents

The perceived perversity of the universe has long been a subject of comment, and precursors to the modern version of Murphy's law are not hard to find. The concept may be as old as humanity.[1] Recent significant research in this area has been conducted by members of the American Dialect Society. Society member Stephen Goranson has found a version of the law, not yet generalized or bearing that name, in a report by Alfred Holt at an 1877 meeting of an engineering society.

It is found that anything that can go wrong at sea generally does go wrong sooner or later, so it is not to be wondered that owners prefer the safe to the scientific .... Sufficient stress can hardly be laid on the advantages of simplicity. The human factor cannot be safely neglected in planning machinery. If attention is to be obtained, the engine must be such that the engineer will be disposed to attend to it.[2]

Mathematician Augustus De Morgan wrote on June 23, 1866:[3]
"The first experiment already illustrates a truth of the theory, well confirmed by practice, what-ever can happen will happen if we make trials enough." In later publications "whatever can happen will happen" occasionally is termed "Murphy's law," which raises the possibility—if something went wrong—that "Murphy" is "De Morgan" misremembered (an option, among others, raised by Goranson on the American Dialect Society list).[4]

American Dialect Society member Bill Mullins has found a slightly broader version of the aphorism in reference to stage magic. The British stage magician Nevil Maskelyne wrote in 1908:

It is an experience common to all men to find that, on any special occasion, such as the production of a magical effect for the first time in public, everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Whether we must attribute this to the malignity of matter or to the total depravity of inanimate things, whether the exciting cause is hurry, worry, or what not, the fact remains.[5]

In 1948, humorist Paul Jennings coined the term resistentialism, a jocular play on resistance and existentialism, to describe "seemingly spiteful behavior manifested by inanimate objects",[6] where objects that cause problems (like lost keys or a runaway bouncy ball) are said to exhibit a high degree of malice toward humans.[7][8]

The contemporary form of Murphy's law goes back as far as 1952, as an epigraph to a mountaineering book by John Sack, who described it as an "ancient mountaineering adage":

According to the book A History of Murphy's Law by author Nick T. Spark, differing recollections years later by various participants make it impossible to pinpoint who first coined the saying Murphy's law. The law's name supposedly stems from an attempt to use new measurement devices developed by Edward Murphy. The phrase was coined in adverse reaction to something Murphy said when his devices failed to perform and was eventually cast into its present form prior to a press conference some months later — the first ever (of many) given by Dr. John Stapp, a U.S. Air Force colonel and Flight Surgeon in the 1950s. These conflicts (a long running interpersonal feud) were unreported until Spark researched the matter. His book expands upon and documents an original four part article published in 2003 (Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)[10]) on the controversy: Why Everything You Know About Murphy's Law is Wrong.

From 1948 to 1949, Stapp headed research project MX981 at Muroc Army Air Field (later renamed Edwards Air Force Base)[11] for the purpose of testing the human tolerance for g-forces during rapid deceleration. The tests used a rocket sled mounted on a railroad track with a series of hydraulic brakes at the end. Initial tests used a humanoid crash test dummy strapped to a seat on the sled, but subsequent tests were performed by Stapp, at that time an Air Forcecaptain. During the tests, questions were raised about the accuracy of the instrumentation used to measure the g-forces Captain Stapp was experiencing. Edward Murphy proposed using electronic strain gauges attached to the restraining clamps of Stapp's harness to measure the force exerted on them by his rapid deceleration. Murphy was engaged in supporting similar research using high speed centrifuges to generate g-forces. Murphy's assistant wired the harness, and a trial was run using a chimpanzee.

The sensors provided a zero reading; however, it became apparent that they had been installed incorrectly, with each sensor wired backwards. It was at this point that a disgusted Murphy made his pronouncement, despite being offered the time and chance to calibrate and test the sensor installation prior to the test proper, which he declined somewhat irritably, getting off on the wrong foot with the MX981 team. In an interview conducted by Nick Spark, George Nichols, another engineer who was present, stated that Murphy blamed the failure on his assistant after the failed test, saying, "If that guy has any way of making a mistake, he will." Nichols' account is that "Murphy's law" came about through conversation among the other members of the team; it was condensed to "If it can happen, it will happen," and named for Murphy in mockery of what Nichols perceived as arrogance on Murphy's part. Others, including Edward Murphy's surviving son Robert Murphy, deny Nichols' account (interviewed by Spark), and claim that the phrase did originate with Edward Murphy. According to Robert Murphy's account, his father's statement was along the lines of "If there's more than one way to do a job, and one of those ways will result in disaster, then he will do it that way."

The phrase first received public attention during a press conference in which Stapp was asked how it was that nobody had been severely injured during the rocket sled tests. Stapp replied that it was because they always took Murphy's law under consideration; he then summarized the law and said that in general, it meant that it was important to consider all the possibilities (possible things that could go wrong) before doing a test and act to counter them. Thus Stapp's usage and Murphy's alleged usage are very different in outlook and attitude. One is sour, the other an affirmation of the predictable being surmountable, usually by sufficient planning and redundancy. Nichols believes Murphy was unwilling to take the responsibility for the device's initial failure (by itself a blip of no large significance) and is to be doubly damned for not allowing the MX981 team time to validate the sensor's operability and for trying to blame an underling when doing so in the embarrassing aftermath.

The association with the 1948 incident is by no means secure. Despite extensive research, no trace of documentation of the saying as Murphy's law has been found before 1951 (see above). The next citations are not found until 1955, when the May–June issue of Aviation Mechanics Bulletin included the line "Murphy's law: If an aircraft part can be installed incorrectly, someone will install it that way,"[12] and Lloyd Mallan's book, Men, Rockets and Space Rats, referred to: "Colonel Stapp's favorite takeoff on sober scientific laws—Murphy's law, Stapp calls it—'Everything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong'." The Mercury astronauts in 1962 attributed Murphy's law to U.S. Navy training films.[12]

he described [it] as "Murphy's law or the fourth law of thermodynamics" (actually there were only three last I heard) which states: "If anything can go wrong, it will."[13]

In May 1951,[14] Anne Roe gives a transcript of an interview (part of a Thematic Apperception Test, asking impressions on a photograph) with Theoretical Physicist number 3: "...As for himself he realized that this was the inexorable working of the second law of the thermodynamics which stated Murphy's law ‘If anything can go wrong it will’." Anne Roe's papers are in the American Philosophical Society archives in Philadelphia; those records (as noted by Stephen Goranson on the American Dialect Society list 12/31/2008) identify the interviewed physicist as Howard Percy "Bob" Robertson (1903–1961). Robertson's papers are at the Caltech archives; there, in a letter Robertson offers Roe an interview within the first three months of 1949 (as noted by Goranson on American Dialect Society list 5/9/2009). The Robertson interview apparently predated the Muroc scenario said by Nick Spark (American Aviation Historical Society Journal 48 (2003) p. 169) to have occurred in or after June, 1949.

The name "Murphy's law" was not immediately secure. A story by Lee Correy in the February 1955 issue of Astounding Science Fiction referred to "Reilly's law," which "states that in any scientific or engineering endeavor, anything that can go wrong will go wrong".[15]Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Lewis Strauss was quoted in the Chicago Daily Tribune on February 12, 1955, saying "I hope it will be known as Strauss' law. It could be stated about like this: If anything bad can happen, it probably will."[16]

The law's namesake was Capt. Ed Murphy, a development engineer from Wright Field Aircraft Lab. Frustration with a strap transducer which was malfunctioning due to an error in wiring the strain gagebridges caused him to remark – "If there is any way to do it wrong, he will" – referring to the technician who had wired the bridges at the Lab. I assigned Murphy's law to the statement and the associated variations.[17]

According to Richard Dawkins of the University of Oxford, so-called laws like Murphy's law and Sod's law are nonsense because they require inanimate objects to have desires of their own, or else to react according to one's own desires. Dawkins points out that a certain class of events may occur all the time, but are only noticed when they become a nuisance. He gives as an example aircraft noise interfering with filming. Aircraft are in the sky all the time, but are only taken note of when they cause a problem. This is a form of confirmation bias whereby the investigator seeks out evidence to confirm his already formed ideas, but does not look for evidence that contradicts them.[18]

There have been persistent references to Murphy's law associating it with the laws of thermodynamics from early on (see the quotation from Anne Roe's book above).[13] In particular, Murphy's law is often cited as a form of the second law of thermodynamics (the law of entropy) because both are predicting a tendency to a more disorganised state.[20] Atanu Chatterjee investigated this idea by formally stating Murphy's law in mathematical terms. Chatterjee found that Murphy's law so stated could be disproved using the principle of least action.[21]

From its initial public announcement, Murphy's law quickly spread to various technical cultures connected to aerospace engineering.[22] Before long, variants had passed into the popular imagination, changing as they went.

Author Arthur Bloch has compiled a number of books full of corollaries to Murphy's law and variations thereof. The first of these was Murphy's law and other reasons why things go wrong!,[23]

Yhprum's law, where the name is spelled backwards, is "anything that can go right, will go right" — the optimistic application of Murphy's law in reverse.

Peter Drucker, the management consultant, with a nod to Murphy, formulated "Drucker's Law" in dealing with complexity of management: "If one thing goes wrong, everything else will, and at the same time."[24]

Mrs. Murphy's Law is a corollary of Murphy's Law. It states that things will go wrong when Mr. Murphy is away, as in this formulation:[25][26][27][28]

1.
Epigram
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An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. Derived from the Greek, ἐπίγραμμα epigramma inscription from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein to write on, to inscribe, the presence of wit or sarcasm tends to distinguish non-poetic epigrams from aphorisms and adages, which may lack them. These original epigrams did the job as a short prose text might have done. Epigram became a genre in the Hellenistic period, probably developing out of scholarly collections of inscriptional epigrams. Many of the types of literary epigram look back to inscriptional contexts, particularly funerary epigram. Many sympotic epigrams combine sympotic and funerary elements – they tell their readers to drink, epigrams are also thought of as having a point – that is, the poem ends in a punchline or satirical twist. By no means do all Greek epigrams behave this way, many are simply descriptive, Greek epigram was actually much more diverse, as the Milan Papyrus now indicates. A major source for Greek literary epigram is the Greek Anthology, the Anthology includes one book of Christian epigrams as well as one book of erotic and amorous epigrams called the Μουσα Παιδικη. Roman epigrams owe much to their Greek predecessors and contemporaries, Roman epigrams, however, were often more satirical than Greek ones, and at times used obscene language for effect. Its content, of course, makes it clear how popular such poems were, Admiror, O paries, Im astonished, wall, that you havent collapsed into ruins, since youre holding up the weary verse of so many poets. However, in the world, epigrams were most often gifts to patrons or entertaining verse to be published. Authors whose epigrams survive include Catullus, who wrote both invectives and love epigrams – his poem 85 is one of the latter, nescio, sed fieri sentio, et excrucior. Maybe youd like to know why I do, I dont know, but I feel it happening, and Im crucified. Martial, however, is considered to be the master of the Latin epigram and his technique relies heavily on the satirical poem with a joke in the last line, thus drawing him closer to the modern idea of epigram as a genre. Here he defines his genre against a critic, Disce quod ignoras, non sunt longa quibus nihil est quod demere possis, sed tu, Cosconi, disticha longa facis. Learn what you dont know, one work of Marsus or learned Pedo often stretches out over a doublesided page, a work isnt long if you cant take anything out of it, but you, Cosconius, write even a couplet too long. Poets known for their epigrams whose work has been lost include Cornificia, in early English literature the short couplet poem was dominated by the poetic epigram and proverb, especially in the translations of the Bible and the Greek and Roman poets. Since 1600, two lines of verse that rhyme with each other, known as a couplet featured as a part of the longer sonnet form

2.
Universe
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The Universe is all of time and space and its contents. It includes planets, moons, minor planets, stars, galaxies, the contents of intergalactic space, the size of the entire Universe is unknown. The earliest scientific models of the Universe were developed by ancient Greek and Indian philosophers and were geocentric, over the centuries, more precise astronomical observations led Nicolaus Copernicus to develop the heliocentric model with the Sun at the center of the Solar System. In developing the law of gravitation, Sir Isaac Newton built upon Copernicuss work as well as observations by Tycho Brahe. Further observational improvements led to the realization that our Solar System is located in the Milky Way galaxy and it is assumed that galaxies are distributed uniformly and the same in all directions, meaning that the Universe has neither an edge nor a center. Discoveries in the early 20th century have suggested that the Universe had a beginning, the majority of mass in the Universe appears to exist in an unknown form called dark matter. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the Universe, under this theory, space and time emerged together 13. 799±0.021 billion years ago with a fixed amount of energy and matter that has become less dense as the Universe has expanded. After the initial expansion, the Universe cooled, allowing the first subatomic particles to form, giant clouds later merged through gravity to form galaxies, stars, and everything else seen today. Some physicists have suggested various multiverse hypotheses, in which the Universe might be one among many universes that likewise exist, the Universe can be defined as everything that exists, everything that has existed, and everything that will exist. According to our current understanding, the Universe consists of spacetime, forms of energy, the Universe encompasses all of life, all of history, and some philosophers and scientists suggest that it even encompasses ideas such as mathematics and logic. The word universe derives from the Old French word univers, which in turn derives from the Latin word universum, the Latin word was used by Cicero and later Latin authors in many of the same senses as the modern English word is used. Another synonym was ὁ κόσμος ho kósmos, synonyms are also found in Latin authors and survive in modern languages, e. g. the German words Das All, Weltall, and Natur for Universe. The same synonyms are found in English, such as everything, the cosmos, the world, the prevailing model for the evolution of the Universe is the Big Bang theory. The Big Bang model states that the earliest state of the Universe was extremely hot and dense, the model is based on general relativity and on simplifying assumptions such as homogeneity and isotropy of space. The Big Bang model accounts for such as the correlation of distance and redshift of galaxies, the ratio of the number of hydrogen to helium atoms. The initial hot, dense state is called the Planck epoch, after the Planck epoch and inflation came the quark, hadron, and lepton epochs. Together, these epochs encompassed less than 10 seconds of time following the Big Bang, the observed abundance of the elements can be explained by combining the overall expansion of space with nuclear and atomic physics. As the Universe expands, the density of electromagnetic radiation decreases more quickly than does that of matter because the energy of a photon decreases with its wavelength

3.
American Dialect Society
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The Society publishes the academic journal, American Speech. Cassidy was appointed Chief Editor in 1963, the first volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English, covering the letters A-C, was published in 1985. The other major project of the Society is the Linguistic Atlas of the United States, the Society has never had more than a few hundred active members. With so few scholars advancing the enterprise, the developments in the field came slowly and its activities include a mailing list, which deals chiefly with American English but also carries some discussion of other issues of linguistic interest. Since 1991, the American Dialect Society has designated one or more words or terms to be the word of the year, the New York Times stated that the American Dialect Society probably started the word-of-the-year ritual. However, the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache has announced a word of the year since 1977, in addition, the ADS has chosen its Word of the 1990s, Word of the 20th Century, and Word of the Past Millennium. The society also selects words in categories that vary from year to year, such as most original or most unnecessary. A number of words chosen by the ADS are also on the lists of Merriam-Websters Words of the Year, American English Language planning Language Report from Oxford University Press Lists of Merriam-Websters Words of the Year Neologism Word formation Lerer, Seth. Inventing English, A Portable History of the Language, New York, New York, Columbia University Press. The American Language, An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States, predicting New Words, The Secrets of Their Success. Why wardrobe malfunction wasnt the word of the year

4.
Augustus De Morgan
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Augustus De Morgan was a British mathematician and logician. He formulated De Morgans laws and introduced the mathematical induction. Augustus De Morgan was born in Madurai, India in 1806 and his father was Lieut. -Colonel John De Morgan, who held various appointments in the service of the East India Company. His mother, Elizabeth Dodson descended from James Dodson, who computed a table of anti-logarithms, that is, Augustus De Morgan became blind in one eye a month or two after he was born. The family moved to England when Augustus was seven months old, when De Morgan was ten years old, his father died. Mrs. De Morgan resided at various places in the southwest of England and his mathematical talents went unnoticed until he was fourteen, when a family-friend discovered him making an elaborate drawing of a figure in Euclid with ruler and compasses. She explained the aim of Euclid to Augustus, and gave him an initiation into demonstration and he received his secondary education from Mr. Parsons, a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, who appreciated classics better than mathematics. His mother was an active and ardent member of the Church of England, and desired that her son should become a clergyman, I shall use the world Anti-Deism to signify the opinion that there does not exist a Creator who made and sustains the Universe. His college tutor was John Philips Higman, FRS, at college he played the flute for recreation and was prominent in the musical clubs. His love of knowledge for its own sake interfered with training for the great mathematical race, as a consequence he came out fourth wrangler. This entitled him to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, but to take the degree of Master of Arts. To the signing of any such test De Morgan felt a strong objection, in about 1875 theological tests for academic degrees were abolished in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. As no career was open to him at his own university, he decided to go to the Bar, and took up residence in London, about this time the movement for founding London University took shape. A body of liberal-minded men resolved to meet the difficulty by establishing in London a University on the principle of religious neutrality, De Morgan, then 22 years of age, was appointed professor of mathematics. His introductory lecture On the study of mathematics is a discourse upon mental education of permanent value, the London University was a new institution, and the relations of the Council of management, the Senate of professors and the body of students were not well defined. A dispute arose between the professor of anatomy and his students, and in consequence of the action taken by the Council, another professor of mathematics was appointed, who then drowned a few years later. De Morgan had shown himself a prince of teachers, he was invited to return to his chair and its object was to spread scientific and other knowledge by means of cheap and clearly written treatises by the best writers of the time. One of its most voluminous and effective writers was De Morgan, when De Morgan came to reside in London he found a congenial friend in William Frend, notwithstanding his mathematical heresy about negative quantities

5.
Magic (illusion)
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Magic is one of the oldest performing arts in the world in which audiences are entertained by staged tricks or illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means. These feats are called magic tricks, effects, or illusions, the term magic etymologically derives from the Greek word mageia. In ancient times, Greeks and Persians had been at war for centuries, ritual acts of Persian priests came to be known as mageia, and then magika—which eventually came to mean any foreign, unorthodox, or illegitimate ritual practice. The first book containing explanations of magic tricks appeared in 1584, during the 17th century, many similar books were published that described magic tricks. Until the 18th century, magic shows were a source of entertainment at fairs. A founding figure of modern entertainment magic was Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, John Henry Anderson was pioneering the same transition in London in the 1840s. Towards the end of the 19th century, large magic shows permanently staged at big theatre venues became the norm, as a form of entertainment, magic easily moved from theatrical venues to television magic specials. Performances that modern observers would recognize as conjuring have been practiced throughout history, for many recorded centuries, magicians were associated with the devil and the occult. During the 19th and 20th centuries, many stage magicians even capitalized on this notion in their advertisements. The same level of ingenuity that was used to produce famous ancient deceptions such as the Trojan Horse would also have used for entertainment. They were also used by the practitioners of various religions and cults from ancient times onwards to frighten uneducated people into obedience or turn them into adherents, however, the profession of the illusionist gained strength only in the 18th century, and has enjoyed several popular vogues since. Opinions vary among magicians on how to categorize a given effect, Magicians may pull a rabbit from an empty hat, make something seem to disappear, or transform a red silk handkerchief into a green silk handkerchief. Magicians may also destroy something, like cutting a head off, other illusions include making something appear to defy gravity, making a solid object appear to pass through another object, or appearing to predict the choice of a spectator. Many magical routines use combinations of effects, one of the earliest books on the subject is Gantzionys work of 1489, Natural and Unnatural Magic, which describes and explains old-time tricks. Among the tricks discussed were sleight-of-hand manipulations with rope, paper, at the time, fear and belief in witchcraft was widespread and the book tried to demonstrate that these fears were misplaced. All obtainable copies were burned on the accession of James I in 1603 and it began to reappear in print in 1651. In the early 18th century, as belief in witchcraft was waning, a notable figure in this transition was the English showman, Isaac Fawkes, who began to promote his act in advertisements from the 1720s – he even claimed to have performed for King George II. He throws up a Pack of Cards, and causes them to be living birds flying about the room and he causes living Beasts, Birds, and other Creatures to appear upon the Table

6.
John Stapp
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He was a colleague and contemporary of Chuck Yeager, and became known as the fastest man on earth. Born in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, Stapp was the eldest of four sons of Reverend and Mrs. Charles F. Stapp and he studied in Texas at Brownwood High School in Brownwood and San Marcos Baptist Academy in San Marcos. He interned for one year at St. Marys Hospital in Duluth, Stapp was later awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from Baylor University. Stapp entered the Army Air Corps on 5 October 1944 as a physician, on 10 August 1946, he was assigned to the Aero Medical Laboratory at Wright Field as a project officer and medical consultant in the Biophysics Branch. His first assignment included a series of testing various oxygen systems in unpressurized aircraft at 40,000 ft. One of the problems with high-altitude flight was the danger of the bends or decompression sickness. Stapps work resolved that problem as well as others, which allowed the next generation of high-altitude aircraft. He was assigned to the project in March 1947. In 1967, the Air Force loaned Stapp to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to conduct auto-safety research and he retired from the U. S. Air Force in 1970 with the rank of colonel. As far back as 1945, service personnel realized the need for a comprehensive and this led to fundamental concepts that could be applied to better safeguard aircraft occupants during a crash. The initial phase of the program, as set up by the Aero Medical Laboratory of the Wright Air Development Center, was to develop equipment and this was so aircraft crashes might be simulated, and to study the strength factors of seats and harnesses. Human tolerance to the deceleration encountered in simulated aircraft crashes could also be simulated, the first run on the rocket sled took place 70 years ago on 30 April 1947 with ballast. The sled ran off the tracks, the first human run took place the following December. Instrumentation on all the early runs was in the developmental stage, by August 1948, sixteen human runs had completed, all in the backward-facing position. Forward-facing runs started in August 1949, most of the earlier tests ran to compare the standard Air Force harnesses with a series of modified harnesses. This was to determine which type gave the best protection to the pilot, by June 8,1951, a total of 74 human runs had been made on the decelerator,19 with the subjects in the backward position, and 55 in the forward position. Stapp, one of the most frequent volunteers on the runs, Stapps research on the decelerator had profound implications for both civilian and military aviation. For instance, the backward-facing seat concept, which was known before, was given impetus by the officers crash research program

7.
Edwards AFB, California
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Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force installation in southern California, located approximately 22 miles northeast of Lancaster and 15 miles east of Rosamond. It operates the U. S. Air Force Test Pilot School and is home to NASAs Armstrong Flight Research Center, previously known as Muroc Air Force Base, Edwards AFB is named in honor of Captain Glen Edwards. Edwards became a test pilot in 1943 and spent much of his time at Muroc Army Air Field, on Californias high desert and he died in the crash of a Northrop YB-49 flying wing near Muroc AFB on 5 June 1948. The base is next to Rogers Dry Lake, an endorheic salt pan whose hard dry lake surface provides a natural extension to Edwards runways. This large landing area, combined with excellent year-round weather, makes the good for flight testing. The lake is a National Historic Landmark, the base has played a significant role in the development of virtually every aircraft to enter the Air Force inventory since World War II. Almost every United States military aircraft since the 1950s has been at least partially tested at Edwards, the Wing also oversees the base’s day-to-day operations and provides support for military, federal civilian, and contract personnel assigned to Edwards AFB. 412th Operations Group. There are eight flight test squadrons under the 412th Operations Group with as many as 20 aircraft assigned to each, the 412 OS flies an average of 90 aircraft with upwards of 30 different aircraft designs. It also performs more than 7,400 missions on an annual basis and they provide the tools, talent and equipment for the core disciplines of aircraft structures, propulsion, avionics and electronic warfare evaluation of the latest weapon system technologies. The Project and Resource Management Divisions provide the foundation for the program management of test missions. 412th Civil Engineer Division 412th Maintenance Group 412th Medical Group 412th Mission Support Group U. S, the comprehensive curriculum of Test Pilot School is fundamental to the success of flight test and evaluation. There are a vast array of organizations at Edwards that do not fall under the 412th Test Wing and these units do everything from providing an on-base grocery store to testing state-of-the-art rockets. The 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron provides Air Combat Command personnel to support combined test, established in 1917, it is one of the oldest units of the United States Air Force. The Desert Pirates are part of the 53d Test and Evaluation Group, Nellis AFB, Nevada, the 31st is staffed with a mixture of operations, maintenance and engineering experts who plan and conduct tests, evaluate effectiveness and suitability, and influence system design. The squadrons personnel are integrated into the B-1, B-2, B-52, Global Hawk, MQ-9 and their results and conclusions support Department of Defense acquisition, deployment and employment decisions. AFOTEC Detachment 5 is responsible for conducting the operational test and evaluation of USAF aircraft, certification by Detachment 5 is required in advance prior to new aircraft prior to AFMC full rate production and combat fielding decisions. During 1978 and 1979, an AFFTC test pilot and a pair of flight test engineers were engaged in testing with Lockheeds low-observable technology demonstrator. The successful conduct of tests led immediately to the development of the F-117A Nighthawk

8.
Human
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Modern humans are the only extant members of Hominina tribe, a branch of the tribe Hominini belonging to the family of great apes. Several of these hominins used fire, occupied much of Eurasia and they began to exhibit evidence of behavioral modernity around 50,000 years ago. In several waves of migration, anatomically modern humans ventured out of Africa, the spread of humans and their large and increasing population has had a profound impact on large areas of the environment and millions of native species worldwide. Humans are uniquely adept at utilizing systems of communication for self-expression and the exchange of ideas. Humans create complex structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups, from families. Social interactions between humans have established a wide variety of values, social norms, and rituals. These human societies subsequently expanded in size, establishing various forms of government, religion, today the global human population is estimated by the United Nations to be near 7.5 billion. In common usage, the word generally refers to the only extant species of the genus Homo—anatomically and behaviorally modern Homo sapiens. In scientific terms, the meanings of hominid and hominin have changed during the recent decades with advances in the discovery, there is also a distinction between anatomically modern humans and Archaic Homo sapiens, the earliest fossil members of the species. The English adjective human is a Middle English loanword from Old French humain, ultimately from Latin hūmānus, the words use as a noun dates to the 16th century. The native English term man can refer to the species generally, the species binomial Homo sapiens was coined by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th century work Systema Naturae. The generic name Homo is a learned 18th century derivation from Latin homō man, the species-name sapiens means wise or sapient. Note that the Latin word homo refers to humans of either gender, the genus Homo evolved and diverged from other hominins in Africa, after the human clade split from the chimpanzee lineage of the hominids branch of the primates. The closest living relatives of humans are chimpanzees and gorillas, with the sequencing of both the human and chimpanzee genome, current estimates of similarity between human and chimpanzee DNA sequences range between 95% and 99%. The gibbons and orangutans were the first groups to split from the leading to the humans. The splitting date between human and chimpanzee lineages is placed around 4–8 million years ago during the late Miocene epoch, during this split, chromosome 2 was formed from two other chromosomes, leaving humans with only 23 pairs of chromosomes, compared to 24 for the other apes. There is little evidence for the divergence of the gorilla, chimpanzee. Each of these species has been argued to be an ancestor of later hominins

9.
G-force
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The g-force is a measurement of the type of acceleration that causes a perception of weight. Despite the name, it is incorrect to consider g-force a fundamental force, since g-force accelerations indirectly produce weight, any g-force can be described as a weight per unit mass. The types of forces involved are transmitted through objects by interior mechanical stresses, the g-force acceleration is the cause of an objects acceleration in relation to free-fall. The g-force acceleration experienced by an object is due to the sum of all non-gravitational. In practice, as noted, these are surface-contact forces between objects, such forces cause stresses and strains on objects, since they must be transmitted from an object surface. Because of these strains, large g-forces may be destructive, gravitation acting alone does not produce a g-force, even though g-forces are expressed in multiples of the acceleration of a standard gravity. Thus, the gravitational acceleration at the Earths surface produces g-force only indirectly. These mechanical forces actually produce the g-force acceleration on a mass, for example, the 1 g force on an object sitting on the Earths surface is caused by mechanical force exerted in the upward direction by the ground, keeping the object from going into free-fall. The upward contact-force from the ground ensures that an object at rest on the Earths surface is accelerating relative to the free-fall condition, stress inside the object is ensured from the fact that the ground contact forces are transmitted only from the point of contact with the ground. Objects allowed to free-fall in an inertial trajectory under the influence of only, feel no g-force acceleration. This is demonstrated by the conditions inside a freely falling elevator falling toward the Earths center. These are examples of coordinate acceleration without a sensation of weight, the experience of no g-force, however it is produced, is synonymous with weightlessness. An example here is a rocket in space, in which simple changes in velocity are produced by the engines. The unit of measure of acceleration in the International System of Units is m/s2, however, to distinguish acceleration relative to free-fall from simple acceleration, the unit g is often used. One g is the due to gravity at the Earths surface and is the standard gravity, defined as 9.80665 metres per second squared. Note that the definition does not vary with location—the g-force when standing on the moon is about 0.181 g. The unit g is not one of the SI units, which uses g for gram, also g should not be confused with G, which is the standard symbol for the gravitational constant. For example, it is said an F-16 fighter jet is able to sustain up to 9 Gs for a limited time

10.
Track (rail transport)
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The track on a railway or railroad, also known as the permanent way, is the structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties and ballast, plus the underlying subgrade. It enables trains to move by providing a surface for their wheels to roll upon. For clarity it is referred to as railway track or railroad track. Tracks where electric trains or electric trams run are equipped with a system such as an overhead electrical power line or an additional electrified rail. The term permanent way also refers to the track in addition to structures such as fences etc. Most railroads with heavy traffic use continuously welded rails supported by sleepers attached via baseplates that spread the load, a plastic or rubber pad is usually placed between the rail and the tieplate where concrete sleepers are used. The rail is held down to the sleeper with resilient fastenings. For much of the 20th century, rail track used softwood timber sleepers and jointed rails, jointed rails were used at first because contemporary technology did not offer any alternative. The joints also needed to be lubricated, and wear at the mating surfaces needed to be rectified by shimming. For this reason jointed track is not financially appropriate for heavily operated railroads, timber sleepers are of many available timbers, and are often treated with creosote, copper-chrome-arsenic, or other wood preservative. Pre-stressed concrete sleepers are used where timber is scarce and where tonnage or speeds are high. Steel is used in some applications, the track ballast is customarily crushed stone, and the purpose of this is to support the sleepers and allow some adjustment of their position, while allowing free drainage. A disadvantage of traditional track structures is the demand for maintenance, particularly surfacing and lining to restore the desired track geometry. Weakness of the subgrade and drainage deficiencies also lead to maintenance costs. This can be overcome by using ballastless track, in its simplest form this consists of a continuous slab of concrete with the rails supported directly on its upper surface. There are a number of systems, and variations include a continuous reinforced concrete slab. Many permutations of design have been put forward, however, ballastless track has a high initial cost, and in the case of existing railroads the upgrade to such requires closure of the route for a long period. Its whole-life cost can be lower because of the reduction in maintenance, some rubber-tyred metros use ballastless tracks

11.
Brake
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A brake is a mechanical device that inhibits motion by absorbing energy from a moving system. It is used for slowing or stopping a vehicle, wheel, axle, or to prevent its motion. Most brakes commonly use friction between two surfaces pressed together to convert the energy of the moving object into heat, though other methods of energy conversion may be employed. For example, regenerative braking converts much of the energy to electrical energy, other methods convert kinetic energy into potential energy in such stored forms as pressurized air or pressurized oil. Eddy current brakes use magnetic fields to convert energy into electric current in the brake disc, fin, or rail. Still other braking methods even transform kinetic energy into different forms, Brakes are generally applied to rotating axles or wheels, but may also take other forms such as the surface of a moving fluid. In practice, fast vehicles usually have significant air drag, almost all wheeled vehicles have a brake of some sort. Even baggage carts and shopping carts may have them for use on a moving ramp, most fixed-wing aircraft are fitted with wheel brakes on the undercarriage. Some aircraft also feature air brakes designed to reduce their speed in flight, notable examples include gliders and some World War II-era aircraft, primarily some fighter aircraft and many dive bombers of the era. These allow the aircraft to maintain a speed in a steep descent. The Saab B17 dive bomber and Vought F4U Corsair fighter used the deployed undercarriage as an air brake, Friction brakes on automobiles store braking heat in the drum brake or disc brake while braking then conduct it to the air gradually. When traveling downhill some vehicles can use their engines to brake, when the brake pedal of a modern vehicle with hydraulic brakes is pushed against the master cylinder, ultimately a piston pushes the brake pad against the brake disc which slows the wheel down. On the brake drum it is similar as the cylinder pushes the brake shoes against the drum which also slows the wheel down, Brakes may be broadly described as using friction, pumping, or electromagnetics. Typically the term brake is used to mean pad/shoe brakes and excludes hydrodynamic brakes. Friction brakes are often rotating devices with a pad and a rotating wear surface. Other brake configurations are used, but less often, a drum brake is a vehicle brake in which the friction is caused by a set of brake shoes that press against the inner surface of a rotating drum. The drum is connected to the rotating roadwheel hub, drum brakes generally can be found on older car and truck models. However, because of their low production cost, drum brake setups are also installed on the rear of some low-cost newer vehicles, compared to modern disc brakes, drum brakes wear out faster due to their tendency to overheat

12.
Crash test dummy
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The Crash Test Dummy is widely used by researchers and automobile companies to predict the biomechanics, force, impact, and injury of a human being in an automobile crash. This data can include such as velocity of impact, crushing force, bending, folding, or torque of the body. The more advanced dummies are sophisticated machines designed to behave as a body and with many sensors to record the forces of an impact. Crash test dummies remain indispensable in the development of and ergonomics in all types of vehicles, there are many specialized dummies used for obesity, children, rib impact, and spinal impact. THOR is a very advanced dummy because it uses sensors and has a humanlike spine, Hybrid IIIs use dummies that directed towards a specific age, for example, a typical ten year old, six year old, three year old, and a grown man. Using cadavers for these topics of research is more realistic using a dummy for physiologic reasons. Going across a moral line, automobile companies have used a human cadaver, a pig. A pig was used specifically for steering wheel impact because they have a structure similar to humans. Human cadavers along with animals are not personally able to consent to research studies. There are studies that use specific cadavers including obese cadavers, on August 31,1869, Mary Ward became the first recorded victim of an automobile accident, the car involved was steam-powered. Ward, of Parsonstown, Ireland, was out of a motor vehicle. Thirty years later, on September 13,1899, Henry Bliss became North Americas first motor vehicle fatality when hit while stepping off a New York City trolley, since then, over 20 million people worldwide have died due to motor vehicle accidents. Death rates had surpassed 15.6 fatalities per 100 million vehicle-miles and were continuing to climb, in 1930 cars had dashboards of rigid metal, non-collapsible steering columns, and protruding knobs, buttons, and levers. Without seat belts, passengers in a collision could be hurled against the interior of the automobile or through the windshield. The vehicle body itself was rigid, and impact forces were transmitted directly to the vehicle occupants, as late as the 1950s, car manufacturers were on public record as saying that vehicle accidents simply could not be made survivable because the forces in a crash were too great. Detroits Wayne State University was the first to begin work on collecting data on the effects of high-speed collisions on the human body. In the late 1930s there was no data on how the human body responds to the sudden. Furthermore, no effective tools existed to measure such responses, biomechanics was a field barely in its infancy

13.
United States Air Force
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The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. It is the most recent branch of the U. S. military to be formed, the U. S. Air Force is a military service organized within the Department of the Air Force, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, who reports to the Secretary of Defense, the U. S. Air Force provides air support for surface forces and aids in the recovery of troops in the field. As of 2015, the service more than 5,137 military aircraft,406 ICBMs and 63 military satellites. It has a $161 billion budget with 313,242 active duty personnel,141,197 civilian employees,69,200 Air Force Reserve personnel, and 105,500 Air National Guard personnel. According to the National Security Act of 1947, which created the USAF and it shall be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive air operations. The stated mission of the USAF today is to fly, fight, and win in air, space and we will provide compelling air, space, and cyber capabilities for use by the combatant commanders. We will excel as stewards of all Air Force resources in service to the American people, while providing precise and reliable Global Vigilance, Reach and it should be emphasized that the core functions, by themselves, are not doctrinal constructs. The purpose of Nuclear Deterrence Operations is to operate, maintain, in the event deterrence fails, the US should be able to appropriately respond with nuclear options. Dissuading others from acquiring or proliferating WMD, and the means to deliver them, moreover, different deterrence strategies are required to deter various adversaries, whether they are a nation state, or non-state/transnational actor. Nuclear strike is the ability of forces to rapidly and accurately strike targets which the enemy holds dear in a devastating manner. Should deterrence fail, the President may authorize a precise, tailored response to terminate the conflict at the lowest possible level, post-conflict, regeneration of a credible nuclear deterrent capability will deter further aggression. Finally, the Air Force regularly exercises and evaluates all aspects of operations to ensure high levels of performance. Nuclear surety ensures the safety, security and effectiveness of nuclear operations, the Air Force, in conjunction with other entities within the Departments of Defense or Energy, achieves a high standard of protection through a stringent nuclear surety program. The Air Force continues to pursue safe, secure and effective nuclear weapons consistent with operational requirements, adversaries, allies, and the American people must be highly confident of the Air Forces ability to secure nuclear weapons from accidents, theft, loss, and accidental or unauthorized use. This day-to-day commitment to precise and reliable nuclear operations is the cornerstone of the credibility of the NDO mission, positive nuclear command, control, communications, effective nuclear weapons security, and robust combat support are essential to the overall NDO function. OCA is the method of countering air and missile threats, since it attempts to defeat the enemy closer to its source

14.
Captain (United States O-3)
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In the United States Army, U. S. Marine Corps, and U. S. Air Force, captain is a company grade officer rank, with the pay grade of O-3. It ranks above first lieutenant and below major and it is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the naval rank system. The insignia for the rank consists of two bars, with slight stylized differences between the Army/Air Force version and the Marine Corps version. Promotion to captain is governed by Department of Defense policies derived from the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act of 1980, DOPMA guidelines suggest 95% of first lieutenants should be promoted to captain after serving a minimum of two years at their present rank. A U. S. Army and U. S. Marine captain generally commands company-sized units, when given such a command, they bear the title company commander. Captains also instruct at service schools and combat training centers and are often staff officers at the battalion level, Marine captains also serve as officer selection officers, commanding recruiting stations for commissioned officers. A U. S. Air Force captains authority varies by group assignment, in an operations group, senior captains may be flight commanders while more junior captains may be heads of departments. In the maintenance or logistics and mission support groups they are almost always flight commanders, in the medical group, captains usually have limited administrative and command responsibility as captain is frequently the entry-level rank for most medical officers and dental officers. In Army and Air Force medical units, captain is the rank for those possessing a medical degree. U. S. Army Special Forces Operational Detachments Alpha and MARSOCs 14-man Marine Special Operations Teams are commanded by a captain, United States Army officer rank insignia United States Air Force enlisted rank insignia DA Pamphlet 600–3, Commissioned Officer Professional Development and Career Management

15.
Strain gauge
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A strain gauge is a device used to measure strain on an object. Invented by Edward E. Simmons and Arthur C, ruge in 1938, the most common type of strain gauge consists of an insulating flexible backing which supports a metallic foil pattern. The gauge is attached to the object by a suitable adhesive, as the object is deformed, the foil is deformed, causing its electrical resistance to change. This resistance change, usually measured using a Wheatstone bridge, is related to the strain by the quantity known as the gauge factor, a strain gauge takes advantage of the physical property of electrical conductance and its dependence on the conductors geometry. Conversely, when a conductor is compressed such that it does not buckle, it will broaden and shorten, from the measured electrical resistance of the strain gauge, the amount of induced stress may be inferred. The gauge factor G F is defined as, G F = Δ R / R G ϵ where Δ R is the change in resistance caused by strain, R G is the resistance of the undeformed gauge, and ϵ is strain. For common metallic foil gauges, the factor is usually a little over 2. Foil gauges typically have active areas of about 2–10 mm² in size, with careful installation, the correct gauge, and the correct adhesive, strains up to at least 10% can be measured. An excitation voltage is applied to input leads of the network. Typical input voltages are 5 V or 12 V and typical output readings are in millivolts, foil strain gauges are used in many situations. Different applications place different requirements on the gauge, in most cases the orientation of the strain gauge is significant. Strain gauges are attached to the substrate with a special glue, the type of glue depends on the required lifetime of the measurement system. For short term measurements cyanoacrylate glue is appropriate, for long lasting installation epoxy glue is required, usually epoxy glue requires high temperature curing. The preparation of the surface where the gauge is to be glued is of the utmost importance. If these steps are not followed the strain gauge binding to the surface may be unreliable and unpredictable measurement errors may be generated, strain gauge based technology is utilized commonly in the manufacture of pressure sensors. The gauges used in pressure sensors themselves are made from silicon, polysilicon, metal film, thick film. Variations in temperature will cause a multitude of effects, the object will change in size by thermal expansion, which will be detected as a strain by the gauge. Resistance of the gauge will change, and resistance of the wires will change

16.
Chimpanzee
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Chimpanzees are one of the two species of the genus Pan, the other being the bonobo. Together with gorillas, they are the only exclusively African species of ape that are currently extant. Native to sub-Saharan Africa, both chimpanzees and bonobos are found in the Congo jungle. In addition, P. troglodytes is divided into four subspecies, based on genome sequencing, the two extant Pan species diverged around one million years ago. The most obvious differences are that chimpanzees are somewhat larger, more aggressive and male-dominated, while the bonobos are more gracile, peaceful and their hair is typically black or brown. Males and females differ in size and appearance, both chimps and bonobos are some of the most social great apes, with social bonds occurring among individuals in large communities. Fruit is the most important component of a diet, however, they will also eat vegetation, bark, honey, insects. They can live over 30 years in both the wild and captivity, Chimpanzees and bonobos are equally humanitys closest living relatives. As such, they are among the largest-brained, and most intelligent of primates, they use a variety of sophisticated tools and construct elaborate sleeping nests each night from branches and they have both been extensively studied for their learning abilities. There may even be distinctive cultures within populations, field studies of Pan troglodytes were pioneered by primatologist Jane Goodall. Both Pan species are considered to be endangered as human activities have caused declines in the populations. Threats to wild populations include poaching, habitat destruction. Several conservation and rehabilitation organisations are dedicated to the survival of Pan species in the wild, the first use of the name chimpanze is recorded in The London Magazine in 1738, glossed as meaning mockman in a language of the Angolans. The spelling chimpanzee is found in a 1758 supplement to Chambers Cyclopædia, the colloquialism chimp was most likely coined some time in the late 1870s. The common chimpanzee was named Simia troglodytes by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in 1776, the species name troglodytes is a reference to the Troglodytae, an African people described by Greco-Roman geographers. Blumenbach first used it in his De generis humani varietate nativa liber in 1776, the genus name Pan was first introduced by Lorenz Oken in 1816. An alternative Theranthropus was suggested by Brookes 1828 and Chimpansee by Voigt 1831, troglodytes was not available, as it had been given as the name of a genus of wren in 1809. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature adopted Pan as the official name of the genus in 1895

17.
California Institute of Technology
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The California Institute of Technology is a private doctorate-granting university located in Pasadena, California, United States. The vocational and preparatory schools were disbanded and spun off in 1910, the university is one among a small group of Institutes of Technology in the United States which is primarily devoted to the instruction of technical arts and applied sciences. Caltech has six divisions with strong emphasis on science and engineering, managing $332 million in 2011 in sponsored research. Its 124-acre primary campus is located approximately 11 mi northeast of downtown Los Angeles, first-year students are required to live on campus, and 95% of undergraduates remain in the on-campus House System at Caltech. Although Caltech has a tradition of practical jokes and pranks. The Caltech Beavers compete in 13 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division IIIs Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Caltech is frequently cited as one of the worlds best universities. There are 112 faculty members who have elected to the United States National Academies. In addition, numerous faculty members are associated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as well as NASA, according to a 2015 Pomona College study, Caltech ranked number one in the U. S. for the percentage of its graduates who go on to earn a PhD. Caltech started as a school founded in Pasadena in 1891 by local businessman and politician Amos G. Throop. The school was known successively as Throop University, Throop Polytechnic Institute, the vocational school was disbanded and the preparatory program was split off to form an independent Polytechnic School in 1907. At a time when research in the United States was still in its infancy, George Ellery Hale. He joined Throops board of trustees in 1907, and soon began developing it and he engineered the appointment of James A. B. Scherer, a literary scholar untutored in science but a capable administrator and fund raiser, scherer persuaded retired businessman and trustee Charles W. Gates to donate $25,000 in seed money to build Gates Laboratory, the first science building on campus. In 1910, Throop moved to its current site, arther Fleming donated the land for the permanent campus site. The promise of Throop attracted physical chemist Arthur Amos Noyes from MIT to develop the institution and assist in establishing it as a center for science, with the onset of World War I, Hale organized the National Research Council to coordinate and support scientific work on military problems. This institution, with its able investigators and excellent research laboratories, through the National Research Council, Hale simultaneously lobbied for science to play a larger role in national affairs, and for Throop to play a national role in science. During the course of the war, Hale, Noyes and Millikan worked together in Washington on the NRC, subsequently, they continued their partnership in developing Caltech. Under the leadership of Hale, Noyes and Millikan, Caltech grew to prominence in the 1920s

18.
Edwards Air Force Base
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Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force installation in southern California, located approximately 22 miles northeast of Lancaster and 15 miles east of Rosamond. It operates the U. S. Air Force Test Pilot School and is home to NASAs Armstrong Flight Research Center, previously known as Muroc Air Force Base, Edwards AFB is named in honor of Captain Glen Edwards. Edwards became a test pilot in 1943 and spent much of his time at Muroc Army Air Field, on Californias high desert and he died in the crash of a Northrop YB-49 flying wing near Muroc AFB on 5 June 1948. The base is next to Rogers Dry Lake, an endorheic salt pan whose hard dry lake surface provides a natural extension to Edwards runways. This large landing area, combined with excellent year-round weather, makes the good for flight testing. The lake is a National Historic Landmark, the base has played a significant role in the development of virtually every aircraft to enter the Air Force inventory since World War II. Almost every United States military aircraft since the 1950s has been at least partially tested at Edwards, the Wing also oversees the base’s day-to-day operations and provides support for military, federal civilian, and contract personnel assigned to Edwards AFB. 412th Operations Group. There are eight flight test squadrons under the 412th Operations Group with as many as 20 aircraft assigned to each, the 412 OS flies an average of 90 aircraft with upwards of 30 different aircraft designs. It also performs more than 7,400 missions on an annual basis and they provide the tools, talent and equipment for the core disciplines of aircraft structures, propulsion, avionics and electronic warfare evaluation of the latest weapon system technologies. The Project and Resource Management Divisions provide the foundation for the program management of test missions. 412th Civil Engineer Division 412th Maintenance Group 412th Medical Group 412th Mission Support Group U. S, the comprehensive curriculum of Test Pilot School is fundamental to the success of flight test and evaluation. There are a vast array of organizations at Edwards that do not fall under the 412th Test Wing and these units do everything from providing an on-base grocery store to testing state-of-the-art rockets. The 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron provides Air Combat Command personnel to support combined test, established in 1917, it is one of the oldest units of the United States Air Force. The Desert Pirates are part of the 53d Test and Evaluation Group, Nellis AFB, Nevada, the 31st is staffed with a mixture of operations, maintenance and engineering experts who plan and conduct tests, evaluate effectiveness and suitability, and influence system design. The squadrons personnel are integrated into the B-1, B-2, B-52, Global Hawk, MQ-9 and their results and conclusions support Department of Defense acquisition, deployment and employment decisions. AFOTEC Detachment 5 is responsible for conducting the operational test and evaluation of USAF aircraft, certification by Detachment 5 is required in advance prior to new aircraft prior to AFMC full rate production and combat fielding decisions. During 1978 and 1979, an AFFTC test pilot and a pair of flight test engineers were engaged in testing with Lockheeds low-observable technology demonstrator. The successful conduct of tests led immediately to the development of the F-117A Nighthawk

19.
G. Harry Stine
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George Harry Stine was one of the founding figures of model rocketry, a science and technology writer, and a science fiction author. Stine grew up in Colorado Springs and attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Stine and his wife Barbara were friends of author Robert A. Heinlein, who sponsored their wedding, as Harrys parents were dead and Barbaras mother too ill to travel. Several of Heinleins books are dedicated one or both of them, most particularly Have Space Suit - Will Travel, Stine also wrote science fiction under the pen name Lee Correy in the mid-1950s, as well as writing science articles for Popular Mechanics. After White Sands, Stine was employed at several other aerospace companies and this is due to happen within the next few months—or it may have already happened even at the time you are reading this. The next day he was told to clear out his desk, back in his days at White Sands he had handled inquiries from young people concerning rockets, and early in 1957 he wrote an article for Mechanics Illustrated about rocket safety. Shortly thereafter he received a letter from Orville Carlisle, who had begun making small models and, more importantly, Stine was impressed with the samples that Carlisle had sent him, and wrote a cover article for the October MI issue about them. After the Martin firing, he contacted Carlisle and the two of them formed Model Missiles Inc. the first manufacturer of rockets and their engines. Stine also founded the National Association of Rocketry and wrote the safety code which became its centerpiece, MMI was short-lived, as they were unprepared to handle the level of business they attracted and because of some poor business decisions. Issues with the production of early engines caused them to seek out Vernon Estes, Stine continued to work to popularize the hobby, writing the Handbook of Model Rocketry in 1965, which went on through seven editions over the years. He returned to the industry, continuing to write under his pen name, including a Star Trek novel called The Abode of Life. He was a consultant to CBS television news during the Apollo program, along with Lindy Davis, Charles Friedlander, the character named Harry Stein in the novel Stardance is a homage to Stine. In addition to The Third Industrial Revolution, he wrote other books encouraging public awareness of the possibilities of a lucrative. The Council was instrumental in developing the Reagan Strategic Defense Initiative which became known as Star Wars and he died on November 2,1997, in Phoenix, Arizona, of an apparent stroke

20.
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
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Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science-fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. The first issue, titled Astounding Stories of Super-Science, was dated January 1930, published by William Clayton, Clayton went bankrupt in 1933 and the magazine was sold to Street & Smith. At the end of 1937, Campbell took over editorial duties under Tremaines supervision, the period beginning with Campbells editorship is often referred to as the Golden Age of Science Fiction. By 1950, new competition had appeared from Galaxy Science Fiction, in 1960, Campbell changed the title of the magazine to Analog Science Fiction & Fact, he had long wanted to get rid of the word Astounding in the title, which he felt was too sensational. At about the same time Street & Smith sold the magazine to Condé Nast, Campbell remained as editor until his death in 1971. Ben Bova took over from 1972 to 1978, and the character of the magazine changed noticeably, Bova won five consecutive Hugo Awards for his editing of Analog. The title was sold to Davis Publications in 1980, then to Dell Magazines in 1992, Crosstown Publications acquired Dell in 1996 and remains the publisher. Schmidt continued to edit the magazine until 2012, when he was replaced by Trevor Quachri, in 1926, Hugo Gernsback launched Amazing Stories, the first science-fiction magazine. Amazing was very successful, quickly reaching a circulation over 100,000, Clayton was unconvinced, but the following year decided to launch a new magazine, mainly because the sheet on which the color covers of his magazines were printed had a space for one more cover. He suggested to Harry Bates, a newly hired editor, that start a magazine of historical adventure stories. Bates proposed instead a science-fiction pulp, to be titled Astounding Stories of Super Science, Astounding was initially published by Publishers Fiscal Corporation, a subsidiary of Clayton Magazines. The first issue appeared in January 1930, with Bates as editor, Bates aimed for straightforward action-adventure stories, with scientific elements only present to provide minimal plausibility. In February 1931, the original name Astounding Stories of Super-Science was shortened to Astounding Stories, the magazine was profitable, but the Depression caused Clayton problems. Normally a publisher would pay a printer three months in arrears, but when a credit squeeze began in May 1931, it led to pressure to reduce this delay. The financial difficulties led Clayton to start alternating the publication of his magazines, some printers bought the magazines which were indebted to them, Clayton decided to buy his printer to prevent this from happening. As it turned out, enough stories were in inventory, and enough paper was available, to one further issue. In April, Clayton went bankrupt, and sold his titles to T. R. Foley for $100, Foley resold them in August to Street & Smith. Science fiction was not entirely a departure for Street & Smith, the first Street & Smith issue was dated October 1933, until the third issue, in December 1933, the editorial team was not named on the masthead

21.
United States Atomic Energy Commission
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President Harry S. Truman signed the McMahon/Atomic Energy Act on August 1,1946, transferring the control of atomic energy from military to civilian hands, effective from January 1,1947. This shift gave the first members of the AEC complete control of the plants, laboratories, equipment, during its initial establishment and subsequent operationalization, the AEC played a key role in the institutional development of Ecosystem ecology. Specifically, it provided financial resources, allowing for ecological research to take place. Perhaps even more importantly, it enabled ecologists with a range of groundbreaking techniques for the completion of their research. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the AEC also approved funding for numerous projects in the Arctic and near-Arctic. These projects were designed to examine the effects of energy upon the environment and were a part of the Commission’s attempt at creating peaceful applications of atomic energy. By 1974, the AECs regulatory programs had come under strong attack that Congress decided to abolish the agency. On August 4,1977, President Jimmy Carter signed into law The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977, at the same time, the McMahon Act which created the AEC also gave it unprecedented powers of regulation over the entire field of nuclear science and technology. President Truman appointed David Lilienthal as the first Chairman of the AEC, Congress gave the new civilian Commission extraordinary power and considerable independence to carry out its mission. To provide the Commission exceptional freedom in hiring scientists and professionals, the National Laboratory system was established from the facilities created under the Manhattan Project. Argonne National Laboratory was one of the first laboratories authorized under this legislation as a facility dedicated to fulfilling the new Commissions mission. The Commissions first order of business was to inspect the scattered empire of plants, the AEC was furthermore in charge of developing the United States nuclear arsenal, taking over these responsibilities from the wartime Manhattan Project. It also implemented the program to develop the hydrogen bomb. It began a program of nuclear testing both in the Pacific Proving Grounds and at the continental Nevada Test Site. While it also supported much basic research, the vast majority of its budget was devoted to atomic weapons development. Within the AEC, high-level scientific and technical advice was provided by the General Advisory Committee, in its early years, the GAC provided a number of controversial decisions, notably its decision against building the hydrogen bomb in 1949. As a result, Senator Brien McMahon influenced the decision not to reappoint J. Robert Oppenheimer to the GAC in 1952 after his six-year statutory term expired. David Lilienthal, then AEC Chair, agreed with Oppenheimer and opposed a program to build the hydrogen bomb ahead of any other nation

22.
Lewis Strauss
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Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss was a Jewish American businessman, philanthropist, public official, and naval officer. He was a figure in the development of nuclear weapons. Strauss was the force in the hearings, held in April 1954 before a U. S. Atomic Energy Commission Personnel Security Board, in which J. Robert Oppenheimers security clearance was revoked, President Dwight D. Eisenhowers nomination of Strauss to become U. S. Secretary of Commerce in 1959 was not confirmed by the Senate. Strauss was born in Charleston, West Virginia, the son of Rosa and Lewis Strauss, at the age of 10, he permanently lost the vision in his right eye in a rock fight. This injury later disqualified him from military service. His family relocated to Richmond, Virginia and he was valedictorian of his high school class, though due to typhoid fever in his senior year, he was unable to graduate with his class. Strauss had planned to study physics at the University of Virginia, but when he finally graduated high school, his familys business had had a downturn, and they could not afford to send him. For the next three years Strauss worked as a shoe salesman for his fathers company. He was the top salesman, and saved enough money for college tuition. However, Strauss mother had encouraged him to perform some kind of public or humanitarian service. World War I was raging in Europe, and Herbert Hoover was head of the United States Food Administration, Strauss volunteered to serve without pay as Hoovers assistant. Strauss worked hard and well, and soon was promoted to Hoovers private secretary and his service with the USFA lasted until 1919. Strauss himself became a man of influence, acting on behalf of a representative of Finland, the poor treatment of Polish and Russian Jews that Strauss witnessed instilled in him a powerful anti-Communist sentiment. At the JJDC, Strauss came to the attention of Felix M. Warburg, Warburg brought Strauss to Kuhn Loeb, where he became a full partner in 1929 and was active in the firm until 1941. During this period Strauss became wealthy, Strauss also became a leader in Jewish causes and organizations. For instance, in 1933 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the American Jewish Committee, however, he was not a Zionist and opposed the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. He instead supported assimilation of Jews as equal citizens of the nations where they lived, despite his disqualification for regular military duty, Strauss applied to join the Navy Reserve in 1925, and received an officers commission as an intelligence officer

23.
Chicago Tribune
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The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by tronc, Inc. formerly Tribune Publishing. The Tribune was founded by James Kelly, John E. Wheeler, forrest, publishing its first edition on June 10,1847. The paper saw numerous changes in ownership and editorship over the eight years. Initially, the Tribune was not politically affiliated but tended to either the Whig or Free Soil parties against the Democrats in elections. By late 1853, it was frequently running xenophobic editorials that criticized foreigners, about this time it also became a strong proponent of temperance. Ray became editor-in-chief, Medill became the editor, and Alfred Cowles, Sr. brother of Edwin Cowles. Each purchased one third of the Tribune, under their leadership the Tribune distanced itself from the Know Nothings and became the main Chicago organ of the Republican Party. However, the continued to print anti-Catholic and anti-Irish editorials. Between 1858 and 1860, the paper was known as the Chicago Press & Tribune, on October 25,1860, it became the Chicago Daily Tribune. Before and during the American Civil War, the new editors pushed an abolitionist agenda and strongly supported Abraham Lincoln, the paper remained a force in Republican politics for years afterwards. In 1861, the Tribune published new lyrics for the song John Browns Body by William W. Patton, Medill served as mayor of Chicago for one term after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Under the 20th-century editorship of Colonel Robert R. Joseph McCarthy, when McCormick assumed the position of co-editor in 1910, the Tribune was the third-best-selling paper among Chicagos eight dailies, with a circulation of only 188,000. At the same time, the Tribune competed with the Hearst paper, by 1914, the cousins succeeded in forcing out Managing Editor William Keeley. By 1918, the Examiner was forced to merge with the Chicago Herald, in 1919, Patterson left the Tribune and moved to New York to launch his own newspaper, the New York Daily News. In a renewed war with Hearsts Herald-Examiner, McCormick and Hearst ran rival lotteries in 1922. The Tribune won the battle, adding 250,000 readers to its ranks, also in 1922, the Chicago Tribune hosted an international design competition for its new headquarters, the Tribune Tower. The competition worked brilliantly as a publicity stunt, and more than 260 entries were received, the winner was a neo-Gothic design by New York architects John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood. The newspaper sponsored an attempt at Arctic aviation in 1929

24.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in La Cañada Flintridge, California and Pasadena, California, United States. The JPL is managed by the nearby California Institute of Technology for NASA, the laboratorys primary function is the construction and operation of planetary robotic spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating NASAs Deep Space Network and they are also responsible for managing the JPL Small-Body Database, and provides physical data and lists of publications for all known small Solar System bodies. The JPLs Space Flight Operations Facility and Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator are designated National Historic Landmarks, JPL traces its beginnings to 1936 in the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology when the first set of rocket experiments were carried out in the Arroyo Seco. Malinas thesis advisor was engineer/aerodynamicist Theodore von Kármán, who arranged for U. S. Army financial support for this GALCIT Rocket Project in 1939. In 1941, Malina, Parsons, Forman, Martin Summerfield, in 1943, von Kármán, Malina, Parsons, and Forman established the Aerojet Corporation to manufacture JATO motors. The project took on the name Jet Propulsion Laboratory in November 1943, during JPLs Army years, the laboratory developed two deployed weapon systems, the MGM-5 Corporal and MGM-29 Sergeant intermediate range ballistic missiles. These missiles were the first US ballistic missiles developed at JPL and it also developed a number of other weapons system prototypes, such as the Loki anti-aircraft missile system, and the forerunner of the Aerobee sounding rocket. At various times, it carried out testing at the White Sands Proving Ground, Edwards Air Force Base. A lunar lander was developed in 1938-39 which influenced design of the Apollo Lunar Module in the 1960s. The team lost that proposal to Project Vanguard, and instead embarked on a project to demonstrate ablative re-entry technology using a Jupiter-C rocket. They carried out three successful flights in 1956 and 1957. Using a spare Juno I, the two organizations then launched the United States first satellite, Explorer 1, on February 1,1958, JPL was transferred to NASA in December 1958, becoming the agencys primary planetary spacecraft center. JPL engineers designed and operated Ranger and Surveyor missions to the Moon that prepared the way for Apollo, JPL also led the way in interplanetary exploration with the Mariner missions to Venus, Mars, and Mercury. In 1998, JPL opened the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA, as of 2013, it has found 95% of asteroids that are a kilometer or more in diameter that cross Earths orbit. JPL was early to employ women mathematicians, in the 1940s and 1950s, using mechanical calculators, women in an all-female computations group performed trajectory calculations. In 1961, JPL hired Dana Ulery as their first woman engineer to work alongside male engineers as part of the Ranger and Mariner mission tracking teams, when founded, JPLs site was a rocky flood-plain just outside the city limits of Pasadena. Almost all of the 177 acres of the U. S, the city of La Cañada Flintridge, California was incorporated in 1976, well after JPL attained international recognition with a Pasadena address

25.
Air Force Research Laboratory
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It controls the entire Air Force science and technology research budget which was $2.4 billion in 2006. The Laboratory is composed of seven technical directorates, one wing, each technical directorate emphasizes a particular area of research within the AFRL mission which it specializes in performing experiments in conjunction with universities and contractors. Notable projects include the X-37, X-40, X-53, HTV-3X, YAL-1A, Advanced Tactical Laser, the path to a consolidated Air Force Research Laboratory began with the passage of the Goldwater–Nichols Act which was designed to streamline the use of resources by the Department of Defense. Bowing to the constraints of a budget and personnel, the Air Force merged the existing research laboratories into four superlabs in December 1990. During this same period, the Air Force Systems Command. This section instructed the Department of Defense to produce a plan for consolidation. The laboratory is divided into 7 Technical Directorates, one wing, AFOSR is primarily a funding body for external research while the other directorates perform research in-house or under contract to external entities. A directorate is roughly equivalent to a military wing, each directorate is composed of a number of divisions and typically has at least three support divisions in addition to its research divisions. The support divisions at any given location frequently work together to minimize overhead at any given research site, each division is then further broken down into branches, roughly equivalent to a military squadron. Superimposed on the overall AFRL structure are the eight detachments, each detachment is composed of the AFRL military personnel at any given geographical location. For example, the personnel at Wright-Patterson AFB are all part of Detachment 1, each detachment will typically also have a unit commander separate from the directorate and division structure. Located at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, AFRL Headquarters houses the commanders and its primary responsibilities are leadership, policy and guidance, unifying the common objectives of the eight Technical Directorates, the 711th wing, and AFOSR. The Office of Scientific Research, located in Arlington, Virginia and this work is performed in cooperation with private industry, academia, and other organizations in the Department of Defense and AFRL Directorates. The current Acting Director of AFOSR is Dr. Patrick Carrick, each directorate funds research activities which it believes will enable the technological superiority of the Air Force. AFOSR also maintains three foreign technology offices located in London, UK, Tokyo, Japan, and Santiago and these overseas offices coordinate with the international scientific and engineering community to allow for better collaboration between the community and Air Force personnel. AFOSR is one of the sponsors of the University Nanosatellite Program, the current Director is Col Michael Hatfield. The Directorate has previously collaborated with NASA in the X-24 project to research concepts associated with lifting body type aircraft. The X-24 was one of a series of aircraft, including the M2-F1, M2-F2, HL-10

26.
Transducer
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A transducer is a device that converts one form of energy to another. Usually a transducer converts a signal in one form of energy to a signal in another, Transducers are often employed at the boundaries of automation, measurement, and control systems, where electrical signals are converted to and from other physical quantities. The process of converting one form of energy to another is known as transduction, passive sensors require an external power source to operate, which is called an excitation signal. The signal is modulated by the sensor to produce an output signal, active sensors generate electric signals in response to an external stimulus without the need of an additional energy source. Such examples are a photodiode, and a sensor, thermocouple. A sensor is a device that receives and responds to a signal or stimulus, transducer is the other term that is sometimes interchangeably used instead of the term sensor, although there are subtle differences. A transducer is a term that can be used for the definition of many such as sensors, actuators. An actuator is a device that is responsible for moving or controlling a mechanism or system and it is operated by a source of energy, which can be mechanical force, electrical current, hydraulic fluid pressure, or pneumatic pressure, and converts that energy into motion. An actuator is the mechanism by which a system acts upon an environment. The control system can be simple, software-based, a human, bidirectional transducers convert physical phenomena to electrical signals and also convert electrical signals into physical phenomena. Likewise, DC electric motors may be used to generate electrical power if the shaft is turned by an external torque. Radio transmitters converts electrical signals to electromagnetic transmissions, horn analyzer List of sensors Tactile sensor Agarwal, Anant. Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,2005, p.43. Introduction to Closed Loop Hall Effect Current Transducers Federal Standard 1037C, August 7,1996, transducer A sound transducer with a flat flexible diaphragm working with bending waves

27.
Bridge circuit
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A bridge circuit is a topology of electrical circuit in which two circuit branches are bridged by a third branch connected between the first two branches at some intermediate point along them. The bridge was developed for laboratory measurement purposes and one of the intermediate bridging points is often adjustable when so used. Bridge circuits now find many applications, both linear and non-linear, including in instrumentation, filtering and power conversion, the best-known bridge circuit, the Wheatstone bridge, was invented by Samuel Hunter Christie and popularized by Charles Wheatstone, and is used for measuring resistance. It is constructed from four resistors, two of known values R1 and R3, one resistance is to be determined Rx. Two opposite vertices are connected to a source of current, such as a battery. The variable resistor is adjusted until the galvanometer reads zero, the Wheatstone bridge has also been generalised to measure impedance in AC circuits, and to measure resistance, inductance, capacitance, and dissipation factor separately. Various arrangements are known as the Wien bridge, Maxwell bridge, all are based on the same principle, which is to compare the output of two potentiometers sharing a common source. In some motor controllers, an H-bridge is used to control the direction the motor turns, bridge circuits - Chapter 8 from an online book

28.
Richard Dawkins
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Clinton Richard Dawkins FRS FRSL is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author. He is a fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxfords Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, in 2006, he founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Dawkins is an atheist, and is known for his criticism of creationism. In The Blind Watchmaker, he argues against the watchmaker analogy, instead, he describes evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker in that reproduction, mutation, and selection are unguided by any designer. In The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and he opposes the teaching of creationism in schools. Dawkins was born in Nairobi, then in British Kenya, on 26 March 1941 and he is the son of Jean Mary Vyvyan and Clinton John Dawkins, who was an agricultural civil servant in the British Colonial Service in Nyasaland. His father was called up into the Kings African Rifles during World War II and returned to England in 1949 and his father had inherited a country estate, Over Norton Park in Oxfordshire, which he farmed commercially. Dawkins considers himself English and lives in Oxford, England, both his parents were interested in natural sciences, and they answered Dawkinss questions in scientific terms. Dawkins describes his childhood as a normal Anglican upbringing, and that left me with nothing. From 1954 to 1959 Dawkins attended Oundle School in Northamptonshire, an English public school with a distinct Church of England flavour, while at Oundle Dawkins read Bertrand Russells Why I Am Not a Christian for the first time. He studied zoology at Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1962, while there and he continued as a research student under Tinbergens supervision, receiving his MA and DPhil degrees by 1966, and remained a research assistant for another year. Tinbergen was a pioneer in the study of behaviour, particularly in the areas of instinct, learning and choice. From 1967 to 1969, he was an assistant professor of zoology at the University of California, during this period, the students and faculty at UC Berkeley were largely opposed to the ongoing Vietnam War, and Dawkins became involved in the anti-war demonstrations and activities. He returned to the University of Oxford in 1970 as a lecturer, in 1990, he became a reader in zoology. He held that professorship from 1995 until 2008, since 1970, he has been a fellow of New College, Oxford and he is now an emeritus fellow. In 1991, he gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children on Growing Up in the Universe and he has also edited several journals, and has acted as editorial advisor to the Encarta Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia of Evolution. He is listed as an editor and a columnist of the Council for Secular Humanisms Free Inquiry magazine

29.
University of Oxford
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The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris, after disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two ancient universities are frequently referred to as Oxbridge. The university is made up of a variety of institutions, including 38 constituent colleges, All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. Being a city university, it not have a main campus, instead, its buildings. Oxford is the home of the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the worlds oldest and most prestigious scholarships, the university operates the worlds oldest university museum, as well as the largest university press in the world and the largest academic library system in Britain. Oxford has educated many notable alumni, including 28 Nobel laureates,27 Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, the University of Oxford has no known foundation date. Teaching at Oxford existed in form as early as 1096. It grew quickly in 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris, the historian Gerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188 and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the university had the title of chancellor from at least 1201, the university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of King Henry III. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled from the violence to Cambridge, the students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two nations, representing the North and the South. In later centuries, geographical origins continued to many students affiliations when membership of a college or hall became customary in Oxford. At about the time, private benefactors established colleges as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders were William of Durham, who in 1249 endowed University College, thereafter, an increasing number of students lived in colleges rather than in halls and religious houses. In 1333–34, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new university at Stamford, Lincolnshire was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King Edward III. Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London, thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, the new learning of the Renaissance greatly influenced Oxford from the late 15th century onwards. Among university scholars of the period were William Grocyn, who contributed to the revival of Greek language studies, and John Colet, the noted biblical scholar. With the English Reformation and the breaking of communion with the Roman Catholic Church, recusant scholars from Oxford fled to continental Europe, as a centre of learning and scholarship, Oxfords reputation declined in the Age of Enlightenment, enrolments fell and teaching was neglected

30.
Confirmation bias
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Confirmation bias, also called confirmatory bias or myside bias, is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms ones preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. It is a type of bias and a systematic error of inductive reasoning. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, the effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs. People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position, biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization, belief perseverance, the irrational primacy effect and illusory correlation. A series of experiments in the 1960s suggested that people are biased toward confirming their existing beliefs, later work re-interpreted these results as a tendency to test ideas in a one-sided way, focusing on one possibility and ignoring alternatives. In certain situations, this tendency can bias peoples conclusions, explanations for the observed biases include wishful thinking and the limited human capacity to process information. Another explanation is that people show confirmation bias because they are weighing up the costs of being wrong, rather than investigating in a neutral, confirmation biases contribute to overconfidence in personal beliefs and can maintain or strengthen beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. Poor decisions due to these biases have been found in political and organizational contexts, confirmation biases are effects in information processing. Others apply the more broadly to the tendency to preserve ones existing beliefs when searching for evidence, interpreting it. Experiments have found repeatedly that people tend to test hypotheses in a one-sided way, rather than searching through all the relevant evidence, they phrase questions to receive an affirmative answer that supports their theory. They look for the consequences that they would expect if their hypothesis were true, for example, someone using yes/no questions to find a number he or she suspects to be the number 3 might ask, Is it an odd number. People prefer this type of question, called a positive test, would yield exactly the same information. However, this does not mean that people seek tests that guarantee a positive answer, in studies where subjects could select either such pseudo-tests or genuinely diagnostic ones, they favored the genuinely diagnostic. The preference for positive tests in itself is not a bias, however, in combination with other effects, this strategy can confirm existing beliefs or assumptions, independently of whether they are true. In real-world situations, evidence is often complex and mixed, for example, various contradictory ideas about someone could each be supported by concentrating on one aspect of his or her behavior. Thus any search for evidence in favor of a hypothesis is likely to succeed, one illustration of this is the way the phrasing of a question can significantly change the answer. For example, people who are asked, Are you happy with your social life, report greater satisfaction than those asked, Are you unhappy with your social life. Even a small change in a questions wording can affect how people search through available information and this was shown using a fictional child custody case

31.
Imperial College London
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Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. Its founder, Prince Albert, envisioned an area comprised of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall, the Imperial Institute was opened by his wife, Queen Victoria, who laid the foundation stone in 1888. Imperial College London was granted a charter in 1907. In the same year, the joined the University of London. The curriculum was expanded to include medicine after merging with several medical schools. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Imperial College Business School, Imperial is organized through faculties for Science, Engineering, Medicine, and Business. The main campus is located in South Kensington, the universitys emphasis is on emerging technology and its practical application. Imperials contributions to society include the discovery of penicillin, the development of fibre optics, Imperial is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world. In 2017, it ranked 8th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, 9th in the QS World University Rankings, in 2015, Imperial was also ranked the most innovative university in Europe, and in 2017 as the 5th most international university in the world. Staff and alumni include 15 Nobel laureates,2 Fields Medalists,70 Fellows of the Royal Society,82 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and 78 Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences. The Great Exhibition in 1851 was organised by Prince Albert, Henry Cole, Francis Fuller and other members of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. The Great Exhibition made a surplus of £186,000 used in creating an area in the South of Kensington encouraging culture and education for everyone. Its founder, Prince Albert, envisioned an area composed of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall. Several royal colleges and the Imperial Institute merged to form what is now Imperial College London, as a result of a movement earlier in the decade, many politicians donated funds to establish the college, including Benjamin Disraeli, William Gladstone and Robert Peel. It was also supported by Prince Albert, who persuaded August Wilhelm von Hofmann to be the first professor, William Henry Perkin studied and worked at the college under von Hofmann, but resigned his position after discovering the first synthetic dye, mauveine, in 1856. It is considered the highest honour given in the chemical industry. The Royal School of Mines was established by Sir Henry de la Beche in 1851, developing from the Museum of Economic Geology and he created a school which laid the foundations for the teaching of science in the country, and which has its legacy today at Imperial. The Royal College of Science was established in 1881, the main objective was to support the training of science teachers and to develop teaching in other science subjects alongside the Royal School of Mines earth sciences specialities

Magic (sometimes referred to as stage magic or street magic to distinguish it from paranormal or ritual magic) is a …

''The Conjurer'', 1475–1480, by Hieronymus Bosch or his workshop. Notice how the man in the back row steals another man's purse while applying misdirection by looking at the sky. The artist even misdirects the viewer from the thief by drawing the viewer to the magician.

In straight and level flight, lift (L) equals weight (W). In a banked turn of 60°, lift equals double the weight (L=2W). The pilot experiences 2 g and a doubled weight. The steeper the bank, the greater the g-forces.

A strain gauge is a device used to measure strain on an object. Invented by Edward E. Simmons and Arthur C. Ruge in …

An unmounted resistive foil strain gauge.

Typical foil strain gauge. The gauge is far more sensitive to strain in the vertical direction than in the horizontal direction. The markings outside the active area help to align the gauge during installation.

Visualization of the working concept behind the strain gauge on a beam under exaggerated bending.